A COLLEGE student is hoping that people around the country will get their kicks out of a new sport that he invented in the playground.

While a pupil at Henbury High School, Josh Hewitt and a group of nine friends developed a game called squareball which has since taken off in schools across Macclesfield.

Now a 17-year-old media student at Macclesfield College, Josh hopes that the sport will eventually rank alongside football, cricket and rugby in the nation's sporting conscious.

He said: "It started with the lads that liked to play football at Henbury, but with limited space on the playground we had to play in a small square in one corner of the pitch.

"From that, we developed squareball which became big around Henbury and we know of a lot of schools in Macclesfield that also play it now. Other years got involved and we had a crowd going at lunchtimes.

"If we can get enough people playing it, we would like to start a tournament. For it to spread through the schools of Macclesfield like this, we want to see just how big it can be and whether it can become a proper sport."

The game is played in a tiny square about half the size of a tennis court and the aim is to keep the ball inside the boundaries by playing one-touch football.

Any player that uses their hands or arms, uses more than one touch to play the ball, or allows it to leave the square is eliminated from the game, with the last player remaining in the square named as the winner.

Josh, who lives on Barton Street, said: "We played 20-minute games for two years every lunchtime, but now we have left high school we only get together to have matches of squareball."

He believes that one of the attractions of the sport is that anybody can play and even the underdogs have a chance of glory.

"We had kids play that weren't the best at football and if they made it to a final there would be a massive crowd watching them," Josh said.